Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty

Part 2 of Riefenstahl's big Olympic documentary. It's more of the same really, so don't expect any big turnarounds. The closing ceremony is the most cinematic part of the documentary (also the shortest), the rest of the time is spent on filming a series of different sporting events.

There's historic value here, as Riefenstahl's techniques are ahead of its time. By modern standards it isn't all that special though, so I didn't really get much out of it. Don't expect any exciting sporting matches or built up tension, the registration of the games themselves is actually pretty subpar, instead Riefenstahl seems more interested in the aesthetic beauty.

What will stay with me the most though is how amateurish the games were back then. Of course, the original Olympic Games were set up for amateurs only, but if you compare the events (the gymnast disciplines in particular) with today's athletes, this is complete amateur hour. Not completely uninteresting, but hardly worth the runtime.